Archives for September 2011

The Best Use for All those Apples in Season Now!

September 28, 2011 By

homemade apple butter

If your farmer’s market looks anything like mine, it’s apples galore. Every farmer has baskets full of apples, all kinds, just ready to be snapped up and turned into all kinds of delicacies like pie, sauce, crisp, cake, and butter.

Oh yes, apple butter.

This is the first year that I actually attempted apple butter. I’ve made plenty of apple sauce over the years, but I never took the extra step and turned it into butter. For one thing, every recipe made it sound like it took for. ev. er. to make, on top of which most recipes I saw called for lots of sugar. I wasn’t really interested in either of those things.

But oh my, I do love apple butter.

apple butter

So this year, with all the glut of apples at my farmers’ market, I determined I was going to try my hand at it. Naturally, the whole process started with an intensive online search for an apple butter recipe! Unfortunately, most of the recipes I found required equipment I don’t have (food mill), lots and lots of sugar (as much as 1 cup per pound), or a lengthy list of ingredients, including random stuff I don’t usually have on hand (star anise, anyone?).

I stumbled across a promising one at Martha Stewart.com, though, which appealed to me because it seemed like the easiest way to get from Point A (fresh apples) to Point B (apple butter). I also liked that it included pears in the recipe, because I happened to have some pears also that needed to be eaten before they went bad.

So here you go! I did all the research for you, and now you have the simplest apple butter recipe that you can make in your slow cooker all day while you’re busy with other things. You can even do it in phases: make it as far as the apple sauce stage, then finish it off into apple butter the following day.

And um, yeah, it’s delicious.

apple butter


Easy Low-Sugar Apple Butter

Ingredients

  • 10 medium apples (or about 5 lbs)
  • 1/2 cup raw sugar
  • 1/2″ piece ginger, grated
  • 3 2″ cinnamon sticks
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

  1. Peel the apples, and grate in a food processor or by hand.
  2. Stir all ingredients together in a slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours.
  3. Remove cinnamon sticks and set aside. Blend apples into a smooth puree, either with a stick blender or by batches in a regular blender. Return cinnamon sticks to mixture.
  4. Remove the lid to the slow cooker, and cook the sauce uncovered on high for 4 more hours or to the desired thickness. If it’s too thick, stir in a little apple juice or cider. If it’s too thin, continue cooking, making sure the lid is removed.
  5. Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks, or in the freezer up to 3 months. For long term storage, process half-pint jars for 5-10 minutes in a water bath. Larger jars and higher altitudes will require lengthier processing; see this page for more details.

apple butter

Note: It is very important to uncover the apple butter, or at least leave the lid vented, for the last half of the cooking process! Don’t neglect that little detail, or you will not have apple butter in the end.

Do feel free to substitute pears for at least some of the apples. Also experiment with additional spices and seasonings to your taste.

My favorite reference for canning, pickyourown.org, says that the sugar does not play a role in the preservation of the apple butter, so you can add as little or as much as you want to your taste. I found that 1/2 cup was plenty, but if you have tart apples or are used to sweeter apple butter, you may want to increase that amount. Next time, I think I might experiment with honey or apple juice instead of sugar.

So it’s not as QUICK as jam, which cooks up on the stove-top in no time at all. But if you have a food processor to do the grating of the apples (which I, alas, do not at the moment), it takes no time at all to prep for the slow cooker, and then the appliance does all the work while you can be busy with other things.

Again, if you have a food processor, it’s definitely the EASY-est apple butter recipe I found in all the recipes I researched.

Making your own apple butter, especially this time of year, is significantly CHEAPer than buying it. This recipe will make approximately 4 half-pint jars for the cost of 1 tote bag of apples ($4.00 at my farmers’ market). I’ve seen jars of low-sugar or unsweetened apple butter for as much as $5, so this is a definite savings!

When you can control the amount of sugar (and use organic or local apples), it makes the finished product so much HEALTHY-er! It’s not as healthy as biting into a fresh apple, of course, but if you’re going to have apple butter, this is the healthiest way to enjoy it.

Check out Tastetastic Thursday for more great recipes!


Miz Helen’s Country Cottage

15 Comments Filed Under: Basics, On The Table Tagged With: ,

Feeding Baby: When it All Goes Wrong

September 27, 2011 By

All I wanted with Baby #2 was a normal food relationship. You know, the kind where you nurse Baby, and he grows, and then you feed him solids - all different kinds of solids so he continues to grow healthy and strong and doesn’t get picky - when he’s old enough, until eventually, you wean him to milk and table food.

You know, the kind of relationship most babies have with food.

It seems that is not the plan that Heaven has in mind for me. Apparently, instead it is my lot in life for my babies to have completely abnormal relationships with food, and not in a good way.

Not that I am complaining. At least not now. I have moved on past that: I’ve accepted the situation, I’ve learned how to make the best of it, and most days it is just a way of life that I don’t even think twice about it.

But there have been a few bumps in my road that jostle up all the emotions, bringing them to the forefront for a little while until I work through them once again and get on with my life. I’ve already told you about his struggle with constipation, and his lack of interest in finger foods, but there’s another concern that’s been building for a while and finally came to its ultimate and undesired conclusion.

I am now supplementing breast milk with Nutramigen. I did it before with my Certain Little Someone, and I am doing it again with Baby Boy. The problem is that he was not gaining weight, and had not been for some time. After ruling out other causes, like possible allergens still in my diet, I realized that I was just putting off the inevitable and admitted that he simply wasn’t getting enough milk from me to help him grow. He was getting enough to satisfy his hunger, keep happy most days, and even grow lengthwise, but not enough to gain weight.

Coming to this realization was painful, to say the least. Like I said, all I wanted with Baby #2 was to have a normal nursing/feeding relationship.

I went through the same exact thing with my Certain Little Someone and have come to the conclusion that when I take certain things, like dairy and eggs, out of my diet, I don’t replace them with an adequate amount of calories that would enable my body to keep up a good supply of breast milk.

Nutramigen is not what I want to be feeding my child - it’s full of ingredients that I otherwise avoid. But it’s too late to replenish my supply, and my only other alternative is to make formula myself, which is just not going to happen (I do not have time in my day for that!). So I tell myself to be grateful that dairy-free formula exists because at least it will help my Baby Boy to grow!

It’s been almost two weeks since I started the supplementation, and this morning when I weighed him, Baby Boy had gained about 5 ounces. Right now, for me, that makes it all worth it.

5 Comments Filed Under: At Home, Children, Home, On My Mind, Rants, Reflections Tagged With: ,

No Cheese, No Sauce… Can it Really be Pizza?

September 26, 2011 By

sausage zucchini pizza

My DH says “No.”

I say “Yes.” (Oh, and so does Mark Bittman, who inspired the recipe in the first place.)

We both agree, though, (okay, well all three of us) that it is delicious whether or not you call it pizza. Flatbread With Toppings? Extra Special Foccaccia? Eh, “Pizza” is easier, so we’ll just go with that.

Pizza usually ends up regularly on my menu rotation, but I hadn’t made it in a while because my DH can’t have tomato sauce, and I can’t have cheese or milk-based sauces. I figured that pizza was pointless in that case, so I decided to put all my pizza creations on hold until I’m done nursing Baby Boy and am back to my regular diet.

Then I found Mark Bittman’s The Minimalist Cooks Dinner cookbook, and in his pizza section, he said something so utterly profound, it changed my life. (Only a very slight exaggeration.)

Some people think all pizzas must have cheese in order to bind the other ingredients, but this is ridiculously limiting. What you put on a pizza is entirely up to you - if the kitchen sink is your idea of fun, go right ahead.

As soon as I read it, I felt the chains breaking and smelled the sweet air of freedom. I can make pizza! I can make pizza without cheese, and I can make pizza without sauce! And I can even call it pizza. Take that, dairy-free diet!

He even provided some inspiration with a few basic recipes for his favorite pizzas, so I started with one called Pizza with Zucchini and Sausage. I gave it my own little twist, and it was amazing. Even my DH, who looooves his cheese, especially on his pizza, agreed that it was very good. With the added caveat, “As long as I don’t call it pizza”. So if you can’t call it pizza, that’s fine, but you should still make it, because it’s very good. Amazing, in fact.

sausage zucchini pizza


No-Cheese No-Sauce Pizza

slightly adapted from Mark Bittman

Ingredients

  • 1 pizza crust (I use artisan dough)
  • 1 medium zucchini, thinly sliced
  • sea salt
  • 1/2 lb sweet Italian sausage, crumbled (but not cooked)
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • handful fresh basil

Instructions

  1. If starting with pizza dough, roll it out to cover a large pizza stone or cast-iron pizza pan.
  2. Lightly salt the sliced zucchini and allow it to set for about 20 minutes; drain any liquid.
  3. Top the pizza with the zucchini, sausage, garlic, and basil. Bake for 15 minutes at 500F, or until sausage is cooked through and crust is lightly browned.

sausage zucchini pizza

Pizza is such a QUICK weeknight dinner, especially if you have a bowl of artisan bread dough in the fridge ready to roll out into pizza dough. Even if you don’t, pizza dough is ridiculously easy and quick to make, so it’s no trouble at all. I especially love that you can just cook the sausage right on the pizza, so it saves time.

It’s so EASY, too! This is a no-fuss pizza that still manages to give off a gourmet flair and offer incredible flavor to boot.

Because it uses minimal meat (and in this case, cheese), pizza can be a very CHEAP entree (another reason why it ends up frequently on my menu rotation).

This is a HEALTHY pizza, too, I suppose with the exception of the sausage. Healthy sausages are available, though (if somewhat pricey), and I believe can be part of a well-balanced diet. The good thing is that on a pizza, the amount per serving is minimal.

3 Comments Filed Under: Dinner, On The Table Tagged With: ,

Menu Plan Monday: The Pinterest Edition

September 25, 2011 By

It’s once again time for Menu Plan Monday! This week I am excited to participate in the “Plan it, Don’t Panic” menu planning challenge spear-headed by Stephanie at Keeper of the Home.

A group of us have signed on and committed to planning our weekly menus so that we’re not panicking when it gets to dinner time. I’m doing pretty well right now with my menu-planning, but it never hurts to have a whole group of women encouraging you and providing inspiration as you plan your meals.

Speaking of inspiration, this week, most of the meals on my menu plan have been inspired by my wanderings through the land of Pinterest. Are you on Pinterest? If so, follow me, so we can share more great recipe inspiration! And if you happen to see any posts on my blog that you particularly love, I’d be thrilled to pieces if you pinned it for me. You can use the handy Pin It button on your toolbar. And if anybody knows how to automatically add the Pin It button to each of my posts, I’d be thrilled to pieces (I’m going to be in pieces all over the place!) if you shared it with me. After that little self-absorbed plug, onto the menu…

Breakfasts

  • Granola w/ Yogurt
  • Muesli
  • Apple Butter Oatmeal
  • Pancakes
  • Toast & Jam

Lunches

  • Leftovers
  • Freezer Stash of Non-Allergenic Foods (for Certain Little Someone)
  • Egg Salad Sandwiches
  • Bean Soup

Dinners

Snacks

Additional Features

This is not just a menu plan, as wonderfulas that in itself is. Oh, no. Some more features for the curious among you…

This Week’s New Recipe

I try to incorporate one new recipe a week into my menu. This isn’t really difficult for me since I rarely make the same thing twice.

  • Ummmm pretty much everything on this week’s menu is new. My DH is gonna hate me!

Baby Food

  • Repeats: pumpkin, squash, avocado
  • New: incorporating more and more table food

In My Kitchen Today

On Mondays, I spend some extra time in the kitchen, cooking ahead and making baked goods to last for the week and beyond. A large portion of the day is often dedicated to allergen-free foods for my Certain Little Someone.

If you’re looking for menu-planning inspiration, check out this great deal from Plum District: get an additional %30 off their price of $18 for $37 worth of menu planning inspiration from Six O’Clock Scramble with the code plumlove. Code expires 9/30/11.

This post contains affiliate links.

2 Comments Filed Under: At Home, Home, Household Tagged With:

OAMS: The Mini Trip

September 23, 2011 By

If you’re new to the concept of Once a Month Shopping (OAMS), readthe beginning of my series here, and more information about how it saves you money here.

So you’re thinking about OAMS, but the question comes to mind - what about the food that won’t last for a whole month? Dairy products? Meat? Produce? And what about foods I forgot to buy during the monthly trip but really need?

The truth is that produce is really the only thing that has to be bought on a regular basis before it goes bad.

Dairy products often last as long as a month if you buy them at their freshest and leave them un-opened until you use them. Excess milk and butter can even be frozen if you have a large freezer. Yogurt often has a shelf-life of at least 2-3 weeks; we don’t have any problem buying one months’ worth at a time. Cheese will start to mold shortly after the package is opened, so consider buying smaller packages (which is unfortunately more expensive), and once opened, repackage it carefully to prevent molding. You can also grate it and freeze the grated cheese: frozen cheese isn’t great eaten straight up, but it can be used in baked goods, casseroles, and pasta dishes.

Meat can be frozen to extend its life by quite some time. I almost always put my meat directly into the freezer unless I know I’m using it within a few days. The only time I don’t is when I plan to use the meat that day or the next. The only trick is remembering to pull meat out of the freezer at least a day before you need it to give it adequate time to thaw (where a menu plan comes in handy!)

That brings us to produce, really the only thing that needs to be replenished on a regular basis. This is where the mini-trip comes in.

A “mini-trip” is a short shopping trip that occurs on the “off” weeks between monthly shopping trips. On a “mini-trip”, you can replenish your supply of fresh produce, and take advantage of any super-good sales that might occur. In a typical month, I take about 30% off my total monthly grocery budget and spread it over the 3-4 off weeks to spend on things as I need them.

For me, that means $15-20 a week to spend on whatever is deemed essential for that week. Typically, this is what I spend that money on:

The vast majority of it goes to produce. Two-thirds or more of the weekly allotment goes to fresh fruits and vegetables, usually from the farmers’ market during the growing season. We go through fruits and veggies fast around here, so a lot of my money goes to that.

I also usually end up at one grocery store to pick up a great sale. I try not to go to more than one grocery store on the off-weeks, so I scan the ads to determine who has the best deals (if any) on things I need or can’t afford to pass up. Usually this means great prices on produce or meat, or occasionally super-cheap and free products.


Once at the store, I check out the clearance and the marked-down produce and meat, too. Sometimes I find really great deals that fit within my budget that I can take advantage of.


If a store is holding a super-doubles or tripled-coupon event, I buy the best deals there. Depending on what foods we need to get through the rest of the week, and how much that leaves in my weekly budget, I’m able to buy more or less of the best deals offered at that store during the week. Because I have a smaller amount of money available to me, I’m able to really prioritize what are the best deals, and what I can leave behind.

I’ll use this week as an example: I spent about $11 at the farmers’ market, so I have about $9 left, which I’ll probably use at Harris Teeter to get some deals I saw in their ad, including some additional produce.

Find the complete series here:
How to Make the Most of Your Grocery Budget Dollars: Just Jump In to OAMS!
Five Ways OAMS Saves You Money
How the “Mini Trips” Work
How to Make Your OAMS List, Part 1
How to Make Your OAMS List, Part 2
Sample OAMS Trip

2 Comments Filed Under: Home, In The Budget, Save Much Tagged With:

Feeding Baby: Encouraging a Reluctant Self-Feeder

September 20, 2011 By

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I like to move on pretty quickly from purees to real foods via finger foods. Someone forgot to tell Baby Boy.

He did the same thing with sitting up, the silly boy. Even though he was physically perfectly capable to sit up - and proved so on occasion - he preferred not to, choosing rather to sit on someone’s lap or with some other supporting edifice, or even just to lie down. Whenever we tried to sit him on his bottom, he would arch his back so that there was no way no how to set him down. It wasn’t that he couldn’t, he simply chose not to.

Same with finger foods. Even though he could find the smallest tiniest crumb on the floor in his crawling adventures, pick it up firmly in his little pincer grasp, and deposit it in his mouth before I could stop him, he absolutely refused to pick up his own food off his high chair tray to feed himself.

He’s still a little reluctant, depending on what he’s given to eat, but I have found a few tricks that helped me encourage him to feed himself more often. It’s a process, like anything else in child-rearing (or life), and he’s definitely not as receptive to it as his older brother was, but we’re getting somewhere. Today, he actually fed himself (quite happily, I might add!) some carrots and chicken! Success!

Here’s what I did to help him over his little hump:

1. Make sure Baby is physically capable of eating finger foods. He has to have a good pincer grasp - able to pick up small items between his thumb and fingers - but also has to be able to insert the item into his mouth. Baby Boy demonstrated his pincer grasp quite readily on many other occasions, so I was sure that wasn’t the problem here. Besides which, he had eaten a whole pile of diced squash all by himself before refusing to feed himself anymore.

2. Pick up the food yourself and put it in his mouth. Seems simple, no? This was my sister’s advice, and it was very effective. Not a magic pill, by any means, but it definitely helped him out. It was like a visual demonstration of what he was supposed to do, a reminder of how it’s done. I would give him a piece, wait a while to see if he would try it himself, then give him another. Sometimes, I ended up feeding him the whole serving, but other times, he would get the nerve up to feed himself a few bites, too.

3. Try sticks of food instead of small pieces. Proponents of the Baby Led Weaning method swear by this. It’s been a mixed bag for me as far as results go, but over all, I’ve had some good success with it. The stick shape is successful because Baby can hold it in his grasp and chew on the other end. My Baby Boy can only handle really soft foods with this method, like cooked sweet potatoes, squash or similar.

4. Try foods Baby really likes. He’s not going to make much effort for something he’s already demonstrated that he hates, so stick to the yummy stuff.

5. Use a net feeder. My Certain Little Someone never really got into these, but Baby Boy loves them! And while it doesn’t help with the whole grasping food issue, it does give him some measure of independence with very little struggle. A break for Mommy and a break for Baby!

1 Comment Filed Under: At Home, Children Tagged With: ,

French Potato Salad. Ish.

September 19, 2011 By

Maybe I shouldn’t admit this, but I’m a huge fan of the TV show Psych, and I’m super bummed that it’s on cable TV, and I don’t have cable. {insert pouty face} I can watch old episodes on Netflix, but when the brand new season starts in October, I’m going to be hopelessly behind! Sad, sad.

The only reason I mention it is because the main character, Shawn, has quite a few “-isms” that are repeated regularly throughout the show, and one of them is “ish”. He intentionally stretches the truth in many areas of his life, and occasionally, when he does, he rectifies the situation by adding an “ish” at the end to make it all better. A lie followed by an ish = truth. Ish.

Who needs to be exact and precise when you’ve got “ish”?! Not me. For example, this potato salad. I’m currently egg- and dairy- free for the sake of my nursing son, who is allergic, which makes it pretty difficult to enjoy a good potato salad. As you no doubt know, American potato salads are dressed with a delicious concoction made mostly of dairy products and eggs. The alternative is a German potato salad, made with mustard and vinegar, which is not my favorite (although I make it on occasion and eat it happily enough).

This past summer, I was grateful to discover French Potato Salad. French Potato Salad requires neither dairy, nor eggs, nor mustard, although it does have a touch of vinegar. I found it to be far more delicious than German Potato Salad ( nothing against the Germans, mind you, just personal preference here!), and was thrilled to bring it to a family function. (Never mind that we completely forgot about it and never ate it at said family function!)

I am talking about Julia Child’s French Potato Salad, you must understand, which is where the “ish” first starts sneaking in. I have my suspicions that Julia Child’s version is not quite as French as it is supposed to be, considering many other recipes out there that seem far more French to my untrained eye. That doesn’t matter to me, though, because it meets all my vital requirements: Quick, Easy, Cheap, Healthy. Oh, and dairy- and egg-free.

It definitely gets even more ish-y when you see my tweaked-up version of Julia Child’s version. This final concoction would likely not be even remotely recognized by any French-ish person, but it’s still delicious. So who cares?



French Potato Salad. Ish.

adapted from Julia Child’s French Potato Salad

Ingredients

  • 1.5 lbs potatoes
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 TBSP finely chopped onions or green onions
  • 1/4 cup chicken stock
  • 1 1/2 TBSP rice vinegar
  • 2-3 TBSP fresh chopped parsley
  • 2-3 TBSP olive oil
  • 1-2 pieces bacon, cooked and crumbled, optional
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Peel and slice the potatoes into 1/4″ thick rounds. Boil in salted water until just tender (not too tender or you’ll have mashed potato salad). Drain and return to pan; cover for a few more minutes to allow them to firm up. Gently place potatoes in a large bowl, and add onions, chicken stock, vinegar and parsley. Let it steep for about 10 minutes or so; add salt and pepper to taste. Toss gently with olive oil, then top with bacon just before serving.


It’s a very QUICK potato salad, just as quick as the regular old American kind.

It’s very EASY, too, despite the “French” descriptive.

It’s even CHEAPer than regular potato salad because it doesn’t have eggs or mayo or other expensive ingredients in it.

It’s a decently HEALTHY potato salad, too, except that it’s mostly potato. Not that I mind potatoes; they’re very good for you, it’s just there’s no added nutrition. If you feel like un-Frenchifying it even further, go ahead and add some veggies like diced carrots or peas.

Shared with Side Dish Saturdays and the following:

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6 Comments Filed Under: On The Table, Sides Tagged With: ,

Menu Plan Monday: More Mark Bittman Inspiration

September 18, 2011 By

It’s once again time for Menu Plan Monday! My new muse, Mark Bittman’s “The Minimalist Cooks Dinner”, is once again inspiring me as I create my meal plan this week. You’ll find a few of his recipes sprinkled throughout.

Last week, we got off the menu plan on Saturday due to a spontaneous visit from a couple of my sisters and a friend, who came up to do a little shopping in the area. As we were driving around, my friend spotted a brand new (to us) restaurant that she had visited elsewhere, and wanted to go there for dinner. The rest of us were game, so we all sojourned there for dinner, not even sure if they had officially opened or not.

As it turned out, they were not officially opened yet, and the “soft opening” was supposed to be invitation only. But since we showed up, they graciously allowed us to come in and try out their menu… for free!

The restaurant in question was “Jason’s Deli“, which I had never heard of before, but am so excited now that it is in town! Jason’s Deli features healthy food without any high fructose corn syrup, MSG or trans fats, plus quite a few organic offerings. How many restaurants can say that?! The menu is quite varied, with entrees ranging from pasta dishes to subs, paninis, wraps, and of course, salads. My friend, who introduced us to the restaurant, particularly loves their salad bar, which I didn’t try, but was impressed by its scope and quality.

The pricing is in the range of a Panera or Atlanta Bread Company type of restuarant, and we noticed toward the end that they had “Seven Meals for $7 Each”, which is a great deal, especially considering the quality.

Breakfasts

Lunches

  • Leftovers
  • Freezer Stash of Non-Allergenic Foods (for Certain Little Someone)
  • Egg Salad Sandwiches

Dinners

  • Simplest Sauteed Chicken with Garlic (MB), Steamed Carrots,
  • Chinese Style Chicken Noodle Soup (MB), Garlic Knots
  • Pumpkin Spice Baked Oatmeal, Bacon, Fruit Cups
  • Roast Fish with Crispy Potatoes (MB), Glazed Carrots (MB)
  • Tuna Pasta Salad with Vinaigrette (didn’t have it last week)

Snacks

Additional Features

This is not just a menu plan, as wonderfulas that in itself is. Oh, no. Some more features for the curious among you…

This Week’s New Recipe

I try to incorporate one new recipe a week into my menu. This isn’t really difficult for me since I rarely make the same thing twice.

  • The Pumpkin Spice Baked Oatmeal is an experiment; if it turns out, I’ll post about it!

Baby Food

  • Repeats: strawberries, avocado, chicken, sweet potato, prunes
  • New: still working on finger foods!

In My Kitchen Today

On Mondays, I spend some extra time in the kitchen, cooking ahead and making baked goods to last for the week and beyond. A large portion of the day is often dedicated to allergen-free foods for my Certain Little Someone.

Have you tried any new restaurants lately?

3 Comments Filed Under: At Home, Home, Household Tagged With:

5 Ways OAMS Saves You Money

September 16, 2011 By

Last week, I encouraged you to just jump in and try Once a Month {Grocery} Shopping for yourself. Was anyone brave enough to give it a try?

This week, we continue the series with a post that answers your burning question: But does it really save me money?

I do about 70% of my grocery shopping in one huge marathon grocery-shopping weekend each month, with mini-trips the rest of the month to stock up on produce, meat and any can’t-miss loss-leader sales.

Many people are curious about this method of grocery shopping, so I thought I’d devote every Friday in September to posts about this very topic!

If you missed it last week, my post was entitled “How to Make the Most of Your Grocery Budget Dollars“. It’s a quick tutorial on how to jump into the whole business of OAMS and get your feet wet, so to speak.

One question you may have is: does OAMS really save any money? And how? To be honest, I debate within myself on this topic on occasion, and I have come to the conclusion that yes, OAMS can save you money if you do it right. How to “do it right” is another post for another day; for today let’s just focus on exactly how OAMS does save you money.

  1. It keeps you out of the stores. When you do the vast majority of your shopping in one big trip, that means you’re only running to the grocery store for a few items in the remaining weeks of the month. If you shop weekly, then you spend significant time every single week walking through the grocery store aisles, and you will be tempted to spend a lot more. I know that was true for me, regardless of how good I was at sticking to a list.
  2. It makes you aware of how much you are really spending, and what you are really buying. Spending a larger amount of money all at once is a lot more jolting to the senses than throwing away smaller amounts week by week. Even if you are just going over budget by $5 a week, that’s $20-25 that you will notice right away if you do your shopping all at once. That’s a significant amount of money if you’re on a really tight budget! You will also see more clearly what exactly you are buying with that money when you buy it all at once. Ten boxes of cereal, for example, will grab your attention much more quickly than when you buy them 2 or 3 at a time.
  3. It helps you crystallize in your mind what you really need to be buying, and how much you really need to spend. The awareness that comes from a monthly shopping trip helps you determine what is really needful and what is just wasteful. The mini-trips are also eye-opening: when you only have $20, for example, to spend on food for the week, you are forced to limit yourself only to what is absolutely necessary. You will more clearly recognize what are the non-essentials that either can be forgotten about completely or put off for another week or two. When I did my grocery shopping on a weekly basis, I would get so distracted by sales that my grocery list would fill up quickly with a lot of what I now realize are non-essential items. Just because it’s a great sale doesn’t mean you need to buy it!
  4. You can take advantage of bulk pricing. When I used to shop weekly, I had a very difficult time fitting bulk and warehouse shopping into my routine, because I simply didn’t have enough room in my weekly budget to buy a $10-15 item, even if it was a great deal. OAMS is essentially bulk shopping, so you can take advantage of those great warehouse and bulk bin deals. For example, I use a LOT of extra virgin olive oil, and I used to buy a small bottle of it once or twice a month. Now, I can buy a large container for a fraction of the cost, and it will last me a couple of months at least. (Costco has at least one kind that is in a dark glass bottle, so it will keep longer, although I don’t always buy that particular one.)
  5. You can splurge mindfully. As I’ve mentioned already, in my weekly shopping trips, I would frequently buy a lot of great sales items that were good deals, but not really essential. At the same time, I would get frustrated by my inability to occasionally purchase items that I enjoyed or wanted to try but didn’t have any wiggle room in my budget. My one big monthly shopping trip now gives me that opportunity to buy something new or fun: maybe an ingredient for a recipe I want to try, or a new brand or product. Because I am working with more money at one time, I have a little more wiggle room. At the same time, the mindfulness I mentioned earlier helps me to focus my splurging only on those things that I really want, not just mindless things that hold only a passing appeal.

Find the complete series here:
How to Make the Most of Your Grocery Budget Dollars: Just Jump In to OAMS!
Five Ways OAMS Saves You Money
How the “Mini Trips” Work
How to Make Your OAMS List, Part 1
How to Make Your OAMS List, Part 2
Sample OAMS Trip

2 Comments Filed Under: In The Budget, Save Much Tagged With:

Feeding Baby: When Baby Gets Constipated

September 13, 2011 By
photo courtesy of morgueFile, idahoeditor

My Certain Little Someone has never struggled with constipation, not even a little bit. It’s incredibly rare for him to go a whole day without… well, you know… pooping. (How is it that moms’ conversations always inevitably end up on the topic of their children’s pooping habits?!)

Baby Boy, on the other hand… Let’s just say that since he started on solids, he has been far from regular. The poor little guy will go sometimes several days without pooping, and then has to strain so hard it makes him cry. This is a whole new ballgame for me since it never even crossed my mind with my first baby, wasn’t even a minor concern.

Thankfully, my pediatrician prefers to approach the problem through diet, rather than getting out the big guns (meds) from the get-go, but I know many pediatricians are not so wise. Here are some tips, both from him and from other smart mamas I consulted, that have helped me get Baby Boy on a more regular schedule.

1. Make sure Baby’s getting enough liquid.

This is easy enough if you’re feeding him or her formula, because you can clearly see how much liquid Baby is getting. If you’re breastfeeding, it’s a little more tricky, and frankly a little disconcerting at times. It’s difficult to know if Baby’s getting enough to eat (and drink!) at times, and unfortunately, constipation can be a sign of a supply problem. However, if Baby has enough wet diapers (4-6 in a day), and seems satisfies after feeding, then your milk supply is likely not the issue.

Older babies might benefit from sips of purified water when they eat solids to help it move on through the digestive system. Learning to drink from a cup is a valuable skill, too, so you can kill 2 birds with one stone here.

2. Make sure a specific food or type of food is not bothering Baby.

Try and figure out if there’s a particular food or type of food - like dairy, for example - that might be constipating your little one. Eliminate it from the diet, and give him a few days to recover, observing the results. If the food definitely seems to be an issue, avoid it for a while, then bring it back slowly into the diet in small amounts. If constipation recurs, take the food out of the diet again. Note: this is probably not an allergy or even a sensitivity, just a sign that Baby’s not ready for XYZ food.

3. Try some “moving” foods.

My pediatrician’s advice was “Eat prunes every day”. And let me tell you, that’s some great advice! If Baby Boy goes more than a few days without prunes, he gets really backed up, but as soon as I re-introduce them, things start moving again. I also try to feed him other foods that keep his bowels moving. Some foods that seem to help him out:

  • prunes
  • pears
  • beans
  • sweet potato

I just buy prunes in the baby food jars because they take too much time to soak and puree at home, and I dont’ consider it worth the cost in terms of time and health benefits. But if you want to fix baby prunes at home, just soak them until they’re rehydrated, then puree them in a blender, adding water as necessary to get the texture you desire.

My mom also suggested corn, which I haven’t tried yet because I’m still trying to keep him grain-free for a little while longer. But older babies and babies who are already accustomed to grains might want to give that a try.

4. Try a little bit of pear juice.

This is not my favorite recommendation, but it does seem to help keep him regular if I give him a bit of pear juice (diluted in water) every day when he eats solids. I avoided juice entirely with my Certain Little Someone until he was 2 years old, and even now he rarely drinks it because I just feel it’s not all that nutritious. However, if it keeps my Baby Boy’s bowels moving along, and keeps ups from resorting to laxatives (which I consider even worse), then I’ll compromise!

5. Avoid “binding” foods.

Stay away from these foods, as they’ll likely increase the constipation:

  • bananas
  • white potatoes
  • rice, rice cereal, rice snacks
  • applesauce
  • refined white-flour based snacks

Do you have any tips for helping Baby deal with constipation?


6 Comments Filed Under: At Home, Children, Health Tagged With: , ,
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